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Abstract

First, on the basis of primary data collected in a rural setting in the
State of Orissa, an attempt has been made in this paper to compare the
socioeconomic status of male- and female- headed households.
Subsequently the differences in the use of resources (time and money)
between male-headed and female-headed households have been analysed.
Finally, the paper explores the relative well-being of the children between
the two groups, i.e., to what extent female headship influences children’s
access to social services, and children’s actual welfare outcomes,
measured in terms of health and education indicators.
The results suggest that poverty and female headship are strongly
linked in rural Orissa, India. For eample, if we draw a poverty line that
corresponds to 15 per cent of the population who are poor, 12 per cent of
people living in male-headed househols are poor as compared with 33
per cent of people living in female-headed households. This result is
based on per capita consumption as the welfare indicator. When 40 per
cent poverty line is used, the differences are still large in economic terms
and are statistically significant. Moreover, when we use adjusted
consumption as the welfare indicator, the comparisons show a much
higher incidence of poverty among female-headed households. This is
true for both masures of poverty line, i.e., 15 per cent and 40 per cent.
Thus, we conclude that female headship can be a better targetting indicator
for poverty alleviation in rural Orissa.
The results further suggest that the use of resources are significantly
different between the two types of households. Labour force participation
data indicate that female heads are more likely to work in the market
place than women who are spouses of male heads of household. The
differences are large: on average 74 per cent verus 54 per cent.
The comparison of household expenditures indicates that, femaleheaded
households spend relatively less on higher quality food items
such as meat, vegetables, milk and other dairy products. However, there
is some evidence that they spend less on personal consumption such as
alcoholic beverages. Overall, the differences are pronounced between
these households.
Finally, the findings show that children in female-headed
households are disadvantaged both in terms of access to social services
and actual welfare outcomes.
JEL Classification : I12, I32, J12, J13, J16
Key words: female headship, poverty, child welfare, gender,
differential resource use, social services, household